The Sky is Falling

Here's some interesting news. Ok, you're probably wondering how that is relevant. Well, it so happens that particular satellite was being used by my project so now we got no links. It couldn't have happened at a worse time since we had our demo to the customer this week. We're working around the problem and hope to have some kind of demo still, but I just wanted to highlight some funny responses my coworkers have had to this problem. It seems not everyone has a grasp on the frailty of technology...

Coworker: Something's wrong.
Me: Yeah, the satellite went down.
Coworker: When will it be back up?
Me: Never, it's like down...in the ocean.
Coworker: So it'll be back up in a couple days?
Me: No.
Coworker: So when will it work again?
Me: I don't know.
Coworker: So what should we do then?
Me: Standby.

Or this one...
Coworker: So is that something they can fix?
Me: (thinking of something witty to say...and then failing) No.

Granted I'm pretty tall, but usually if I drop something electronic, it may or may not still work. If I climb a tree and drop something electronic, it probably won't work anymore. Now, if something falls from space, even if it didn't burn up into little bits, the fact that it fell from space into water can't be good. I'm pretty sure it won't work. I guess people didn't realize that happens to satellites from time to time so it didn't register when I told them. They thought it was still up there just not working or something. You could say those people just didn't realize the "gravity" of the situation. Ha ha, oh I crack myself up.

Strong Bad Shirt Mystery Addendum

Also special thanks to Eric Hershberger for the shirt. Homestar only told me it was Cynthia...sorry. Looks like no anonymity was intended, but that the special instructions that went with the order were ignored, ha ha. Well, it all worked itself out and this way was probably more fun.

Broomball

Last Friday, I tried broomball for the first time. If you don't know what this game is, it is kind of like hockey except your stick is a little different than a hockey stick and you don't wear skates and you can have alot more people involved and you don't use a puck but a ball instead. Anyways, we played on the ice at the local ice rink. We had a pretty good time. I was sad we only got to play for an hour, but I was pretty worn out so it was probably a good thing. I had a couple pretty good spills without getting hurt. I got tenderized pretty good though. Well, I might as well get softened up for snowboarding anyways.

Back in North Dakota

So working with the Air Force, I've noticed a few things. But there is this one thing that is totally bugging me that I know that my brother, Jake, can answer really quickly. These guys always ask me if I'm "clear" or "secure". I have no idea what it means to be "clear" or "secure" unless it means my level of acne or my mental state. What condition would cause me not to be "clear" or "secure"? If I have a gun, does that make me not secure, or dare I say, insecure? If I have malicious plans, does that make me not clear? Just wondering. Anyways, I just say "yes?" and they let me in. I must have a very innocent face. I'd make a good con artist if I wasn't a Christian, ha ha. Eh, ok, maybe not.

So I found the secret T-shirt giver. I emailed the Homestar Runner store asking who the person was that made the order and gave them the tracking number. I didn't think they would reply since I received the order without any trouble so their part of the deal was done. Anyways, not a secret admirer like some people thought, ha ha, just some appreciation for my computer skills. Anyways, since I made a big deal about the mystery, I feel obligated to bring it to a conclusion. So thank you, Cynthia Hershberger, for the shirt. My other one was getting old so now I have a fresh one!

Me and my coworker have been observing a trend in human behavior when we go to lunch. I'm curious if any of you have noticed this same phenomenon. I'll try to describe it as best as I can. You know those situations where the line goes out the door and if there are double doors, one is closed and one is propped open. And the people standing in line are obviously going out the door that is open. Now the thing I observe is that 9 times out of 10, people would rather squeeze in the open space left between the line and the closed door rather than just open the other door and walk out with ease. I actually see strangers who would rather brush up against other people rather than just make for themselves a clear path by opening a door. Another coworker has said, "Maybe they don't open the door because they think it's locked." I don't think so because the few that actually do, open it with the utmost certainty that it will open. He also tried to defend these people by saying, "Maybe it's intentional. Maybe the person in line is really attractive." I didn't bother to thank him for the complement since it's happened to me quite a few times which is how I noticed this in the first place. Besides I see it happening to all sorts of people regardless of gender so physical appeal isn't the reason either, ha ha. The conclusion we've made is that Americans are lazy and would rather not use their hands if they don't have to even if it means rubbing their whole body against a stranger to exit. Has anyone seen this? Or worse, have any of you done this?

So still no news on who sent me the Strong Bad shirt. Here's a picture of it. What's even more odd is that anyone who knows me knows I already have this shirt and I wear it quite often. Not that it's bad that I now have another one cuz now I have a spare when the other one gets too old.

Harrison thought it might have been some computer glitch and they shipped me another one from my previous order. Couldn't happen. The previous order was a big order that we split 3 ways and it was a couple years ago. The last order wasn't even shipped to my address, but to Harrison. I've lived at my new address for less than 3 months and I haven't made any online purchase anywhere with the new address. This was deliberate.

The only clue I have to finding this person is an invoice tracking number. Too bad the Homestar Runner site doesn't have any search capability. You pretty much have to email them and they probably won't be very interested in my question since I received the package so there's no problem on their side.

So when I got home this weekend, I received a package from Homestar Runner. I opened it to find that someone had ordered me a shirt in my size of Strong Bad. This is a really cool shirt, but I have no idea who sent it. Anybody know? Thanks whoever you are!

On the way home from ND on Friday, I had to stop in Minneapolis as usual to take the 2nd leg of my flight home. To my surprise, boarding the plane and seeing in first class was none other than Henry Winkler, aka Fonzie. So instead of playing it off like he's just another person in first class, I accidentally stare at him like an idiot. Then he kind of gives me the nod like "I know you know who I am, let's not make a scene" and I wished I could give a nod like "I know you know that I know who you are, but have you ever been in the presence of a skitguru?". Anyways, I walked past him thinking, "he was in the Waterboy, and now he's right here!"

Oh and last weekend I saw Will Ferrell at the gym again. He wears those full on spandex pants like one of his characters would wear. I'm sure he's been in the presence of many skitgurus, but too bad not many are on SNL. He was probably the last one in my opinion.

Amy is right. My mom's comment to my Bret Michaels post is blogworthy. I remember Shane played the drums and he played pretty well, but I had no idea he ran with Poison. Crazy.

"Remember Dad's friends the Stanley's and their son Shane? We used to go to their place on that mountain in Malibu Hills. Anyway,Shane played drums for Poison sometimes. When we were at Shane's wedding reception a few years back, I spent quite some time talking with Poison's manager. Bret wasn't at the reception cuz he was in rehab. The manager kept asking if Bret should come take a look at our house when it was up for sale. I kept assuring him that Bret would not like it."

I keep forgetting to tell you guys about this. Every time I drive to the base in Minot, ND, I pass this bar. And there is this sign in big fluorescent letters posted out front for everyone to see that is driving by:

8:00 PM NOVEMBER 15
BRET MICHAELS
THE LEAD SINGER OF POISON!

Man, on November 15, Minot is going to be put on the map! If I'm here on November 15, it's almost tempting to check out just to understand...why?

The Craziest Hook Shot

So after Bible study on Fridays, we always play basketball since there is a hoop in the warehouse where we meet. Anyways, we never really play a game of basketball. We normally just play knockout and then when that fizzles out we just take random shots. So as usual, I do something where I'm totally oblivious that I've gained an audience by doing some silly thing. I stand at the 3 point line and try to make a shot by hooking the ball underneath my leg. So sometimes it got close, but it didn't go in. After about 20 minutes, I figure I'd better stop, but everyone was watching and kept passing me the ball. Then after 40 minutes, I would get more cheers, my leg was getting sore, and I started sweating so much I could hardly see. This was really strenuous! Soon I started thinking that no one would let me leave until I made it. So many times it almost went in and bounced out. But finally I got it and man, it was like Boston winning the World Series. I almost got tackled, ha ha. It only took an hour. :p

Fall Festival

If you look on last year's blog for Halloween, I talked about churches that do carnivals as an alternative to Halloween. My new church had such an event. We had lots of fun. It was probably the first time I dressed up since I was in junior high. I wore the ever-famous Cape of Grape and this sparkly green helmet. People liked it but wondered what I was. I told people I was an eccentric stuntman. (It seemed logical to me.) People liked the helmet more, but I thought the cape was way cooler. How can you diss the Cape of Grape??? Anyways, the whole church showed up to help and it was really cool to see the church serve together for one thing. It felt like being a part of a really big family which was what I was looking for in a new church. I'm really happy with the church I found. I sure couldn't have found this by my own merit. God has truly blessed me.

We also ran one of the booths which was pretty active compared to the other booths. It was reminiscent of American Gladiators Powerball, but instead of really buff guys, you had just normal sized adults vs. the kids. So the first round, we totally tired ourselves out running around like lunatics trying to block kids from putting balls in baskets. It was good that the kids got tired too though, but they kept wanting to play. It didn't matter to them that they all won a ticket whether their team won or lost. They kept wanting to play. It was so cool. It was a great night of fun. I was quite exhausted that night.

Election Day

I hope you voted today. Some of my coworkers couldn't vote cuz we're stuck in North Dakota right now. I was in the same boat since I moved recently, I only had time to register, but not get an absentee ballot. But then my coworker told me I could vote early if I did electronic voting at the library. The last day was last Friday so I went after work last Thursday and did it. I was really impressed that my coworker shared that bit of info with me because he knew how I was going to vote and he didn't necessarily agree with me. If he hadn't told me that, I wouldn't have been able to vote in the election. Now that I voted electronically, I will not vote any way differently. It was fairly quick and it's about time it's this way since we're in the 21st century. After the election in 2000, I'm surprised that the entire voting process is not electronic yet. I think the chads have been done away with for good though.

Anyways, it's pretty late in the day and the race looks pretty close. When Bush was first elected, I thought it was a miracle. I also believed it would take a miracle for him to be re-elected being as conservative as he is. It could happen. It's interesting watching the different news stations and watch how they spin their candidate that they want to win. I remember during the last election we checked in on the votes and we yelled and screamed like we were watching a football game. Only a presidential election would cause people to stare at a map of the U.S. for so long with no changes, ha ha. Anyways, I notice all the news stations are alot more cautious in making predictions. It's crazy how close this is.

More North Dakota Stuff

People often say, "look how many red states there are and look how many blue states there are" citing that there are way more red states than blue states. Being someone who is in the middle of all these red states right now, I can tell you there are not that many people here. Area doesn't count as popularity. There is a whole lot of space here and the people are few and far between.

Today I drove through the smallest town I ever seen. Not that there are no smaller towns. This one I was surprised had a population of 1000, but if I blinked I could totally have missed it. If you ever are in need of a new tractor, I think I found the hot spot for buying one here in North Dakota.

Anyways, I haven't had much time to blog. It's too bad cuz I've had alot I've wanted to write and then I forget it cuz this travel keeps me so busy. I should be in town next week so I'll have more to write then.